Learning for all at Longleat - 09/12/2009

With 12 attractions in one venue, Longleat offers a host of educational opportunities and learning experiences for students of all ages.

A memorable experience

Longleat - as featured on BBC’s Animal Park – consists of Longleat House, Longleat Safari Park, plus ten other amazing attractions. Set in 9,000 acres of quintessentially English countryside in Wiltshire, Longleat offers something for everyone.

Longleat is one of only two wildlife parks in the country to have recently been awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge, successfully meeting all of the badge’s quality indicators. In being awarded the Quality Badge, Longleat pledges to engage in an ongoing process to sustain high quality learning outside the classroom.

Longleat’s head of education, Florence Wallace tells us more: “We have worked for many years to ensure that educational groups have a great day out at Longleat and learning is considered to be part of the fun.

We pride ourselves with being able to deliver memorable experiences, such as overcoming fears - the most common being arachnophobia. Giving visitors the opportunity to stroke a snake or handle a tarantula is what we have done up until now and visitors cannot seem to get enough of it.”

The recent opening of Longleat’s new attraction, Animal Adventure, aims to maximise these hands-on opportunities for school groups, taking these handling sessions one stage further. Students are now able to assist keepers in many unique animal health and welfare tasks, such as grooming guinea pigs, cutting ferret’s toe nails or even monitoring and recording animal behaviours. These new opportunities aim to create a memorable experience, allowing children to learn whilst they play. With this in mind, Longleat has introduced the new Ranger Reward Diplomas whereby, for a small fee, pupils are able to take home a certificate detailing their name and chosen animal picture as a souvenir of their visit.